Wanting Feedback for my Etsy Store

[hmlove1218]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get some feedback on my Etsy store. So far this month I've gotten over 600 views and 1900 favorites (mostly from team games) but no sales. I'm wondering if perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Every time I've gotten a critique on Etsy, everyone comments about how good my shop looks, but I still can't help but wonder if there's something that is driving potential customer's away from my shop.

Thank you for your time!
Hunter

 

[Obsidian]

The one thing that sticks out for me, at least with the soap is the vegetable oil. If I'm paying $5 per bar plus shipping, I want better oils then crisco. Also, some people won't use soy products and most of them know that "vegetable" is code for soy.

Your bastiles sound nice. I personally can't use high OO soaps so they aren't a product I would ever buy though. I do have one suggestion, let use this one for a example. https://www.etsy.com/listing/189366212/hot-process-olive-oil-soap-peach?ref=shop_home_active_19
The name is too long and confusing. The average consumer isn't going to know the term hot process or really care how its made. They are looking for the name or scent. I would call it "Peach Magnolia Raspberry bastile (vegan)". You can mention hot process in the description. You could even shorten it more by giving it a cute name like "raspberry blast bastile"

Your sugar scrubs look good and if I was ever in the market for salt scrub, I would try your bamboo lotus. The body butter looks and sounds nice but it has too much color for me. I don't care for that much color in lotions/creams/butters. I never know if it might stain clothes or skin.

 

[jenneelk]

I would agree with Obsidian with all that she said.. I know the shortening would stand out for me but wouldn't necessarily be an issue if it wasn't for the $5 price tag. The pictures look great and so does your packaging.. love all of that.

The butters too.. I'm not sure I'd want color for mine. Many I think go to Etsy for natural and with soap color its one thing since it's wash of, but with stay on products its another. Some might worry like me about residual color left behind or if the colorant used is ok. I don't believe all would know about the term Mica or any others and realize they are ok.

Do you have any wiggle room on your pricing? Maybe try to lower it for a bit to get some sales under your belt and shown on there. Again, many look at those things kinda like on Ebay. You want to see that others have bought there and are interested in the product. Later on they won't know those people bought at a lower price point.
Overall I think it looks rather nice! I didn't devil into looking at too many products in depth.. dinner is being worked on while perusing here.

ETA - don't forget that Etsy is over supplied with people selling soaps and such.. I think for anyone it's just a hard place to stand out in. Like I said.. your soaps are beautiful.

 

[hmlove1218]

Thank y'all for taking the time to look. You bothering mentioned the vegetable shortening could be an issue. I no longer use it in my recipes. Do you think I should put thone particular soaps on some kind of sale to get them moving?

I think I have more wiggle room in my price than I've previously thought. I sell them for $4.50 at a market because I wanted to cover sales tax. When I listed on Etsy I knew I had to still cover he listing fees but didn't think that sales tax doesn't have to be figured into he price because Etsy adds it on at checkout. Ill lower my prices over all and see if that changes something.

 

[jenneelk]

Sounds like a good plan.
Just wanted to add because I forgot to before.. do you have silk in your soaps? The business name makes you think they will have it but I don't see it listed in the few I looked at.

 

[hmlove1218]

I don't actually. I've seen the silk protein and thought about getting some to try out but I haven't get. I don't know of any place locally I could buy silk

 

[jenneelk]

You can buy silk on etsy (you don't need the silk protein.. way pricey and I keep mine for hair products) and melt it into your lye solution when it's super hot.
I think it would be a good idea to try and have some with silk.. just a thought.
I'll look for a link for you.

Link for Tussah silk. Usually there is more than one on Etsy but I only found this one selling. You use a very tiny amount, there will be info at the link below.. so this $18 will last a good while because 4 oz is actually a lot since it's light.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/114542...evant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Link for info on here about it.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=43765&highlight=silk

 

[lenarenee]

I would like to see your soap naked. :angel: Yes, when I click on a soap there are more pictures I can scroll through but when I first see your page, there's a lot of earthy soap colors covered in brown butcher paper. The Acqua di Amore, Tomato, Tahitian Waterfall, Papaya Glycerin are gorgeous colors but they're all covered up in paper! (Not that I don't like butcher paper cigar bands, because I do.)

The page is also very uniform...too uniform. My eye just passes from one item to another because they all look so much alike. (Does that make sense?)

 

[hmlove1218]

Ok, prices have been reduced to my market price of $4.50. Do you think I should go lower until I get some sales? Also, I've created a shop section called "SALE!" and moved all the Crisco soaps there and priced them for $3.00.

Link for Tussah silk. Usually there is more than one on Etsy but I only found this one selling. You use a very tiny amount, there will be info at the link below.. so this $18 will last a good while because 4 oz is actually a lot since it's light.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/114542...evant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Link for info on here about it.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=43765&highlight=silk

Thank you for the link. I might buy some on my next shopping spree lol. Now that it's been mentioned, it would be a good branding thing for me since I have silk in my business name. I'd never connected the dots before.

I would like to see your soap naked. :angel: Yes, when I click on a soap there are more pictures I can scroll through but when I first see your page, there's a lot of earthy soap colors covered in brown butcher paper. The Acqua di Amore, Tomato, Tahitian Waterfall, Papaya Glycerin are gorgeous colors but they're all covered up in paper! (Not that I don't like butcher paper cigar bands, because I do.)

The page is also very uniform...too uniform. My eye just passes from one item to another because they all look so much alike. (Does that make sense?)

That does make sense actually. I thought that I was creating a uniform look by doing that, but perhaps it's too uniform. I'll go shuffle around some of the pictures and try to take some more product pictures within the next few days. I've been putting it off which is why most listings only have two pictures.. I hate taking pictures lol.

 

[jenneelk]

Interesting and thought I'd share because it's another aspect.. my husband said he wouldn't necessarily expect silk in the them due to your name. He said he would expect them to maybe leave a silky feel from using them.
So just another side for you. Maybe silk isn't necessary, although silk in nice them anyways and likely would be neat to have 'silk' in the title of some. Good luck with your changes!

 

[hmlove1218]

I'm probably biased but I think they leave a silky feel after use lol

 

[Relle]

The overall look to me, seems brown, while you have a green soap and black one all I can see is brown because of the labels. That does not entice me to look further or read any descriptions. You need colour and I would love to see the soap.

 

[hmlove1218]

So would you suggest having all the first pictures as bare soap? And having a labeled picture in the other 5?

 

[Relle]

Bare Soap for the first photo and I would leave the labelled soap as the last page.

 

[Obsidian]

Looks much better. I like the naked pictures and the simpler titles. Hope you get sales soon

 

[hmlove1218]

Thanks y'all! Still working on getting new pictures for everything but I appreciate all the help so far

 

[paillo]

I would make the names shorter yet, so they're at least mostly readable for a quick scan. I like to see the face of a bar so I know that it's truly attractive, not blemished or 'off', so glad to see you've added those.

I think it's very possible to underprice good soap. Soap that's really inexpensive can give me the impression it's not worthy of charging typical market value. As for shipping charges, I charge what I typically pay, not less. I get a lot of orders for one particular kind of soap, and I always add a generous free sample. Typically for me a first-class package is 12-13 oz. and I charge $3 shipping (yes, I do eat some of that, but not much).

On the whole, much improved, keep up the excellent progress

 

[maya]

I know you've already done it, but I wouldn't lower your prices. I would take a pic of your unwrapped bar and have that one first, then move the pics of the wrapped bars to the second or third spot. I would also shorten your names, I like the name raspberry blast bastille. For SEO reasons your title and first line of the description should match (but the description can include more words then the title.) You want a title and description packed with SEO words but still makes sense. So "Raspberry Blast Bastille Soap vegan oils and butters hand crafted by..." for instance.

 

[hmlove1218]

Thanks for the help y'all! I forgot to come back and mention that I got a sale Saturday pretty happy about that.

I would make the names shorter yet, so they're at least mostly readable for a quick scan. I like to see the face of a bar so I know that it's truly attractive, not blemished or 'off', so glad to see you've added those.

I think it's very possible to underprice good soap. Soap that's really inexpensive can give me the impression it's not worthy of charging typical market value. As for shipping charges, I charge what I typically pay, not less. I get a lot of orders for one particular kind of soap, and I always add a generous free sample. Typically for me a first-class package is 12-13 oz. and I charge $3 shipping (yes, I do eat some of that, but not much).

On the whole, much improved, keep up the excellent progress

Thank you! In your opinion, do you think I might be undercharging for my bars I put on sale? I charge slightly more than Etsy's estimate for shipping (by like, only $0.10) just to ensure that it's covered since I pay for the shipping through Etsy and print off the shipping tag.

I know you've already done it, but I wouldn't lower your prices. I would take a pic of your unwrapped bar and have that one first, then move the pics of the wrapped bars to the second or third spot. I would also shorten your names, I like the name raspberry blast bastille. For SEO reasons your title and first line of the description should match (but the description can include more words then the title.) You want a title and description packed with SEO words but still makes sense. So "Raspberry Blast Bastille Soap vegan oils and butters hand crafted by..." for instance.

Are you referring to lowering the price of my products overall or just the ones I put on sale? When I lowered them overall, I just brought them down to the price I sell them for at markets.

 

[Bex1982]

I used to sell on etsy and i know how hard it can be. personally most of my customers tended to go for my more colorful/fancy looking soap. im not even sure how many really looked at ingredients unless they had allergies. One of my best soaps was made using crisco. Anyway, I think your shop looks stellar.